CULTURE AND CURING IN KENTUCKY. 69 



if the curing is properly done, and the porous system of the leaf is fixed in u permanent state 'of contraction, which 

 reduces its capacity for too ready absorption and increases its ability to pass uninjured through a high degree of 

 fermentation. It is therefore safer in long transportation by sea, or in exposure, where strong fermentation is to 

 be apprehended. By the method of air-curing the natural flavors of the leaf are preserved, uncontaminated with 

 the acid vapors of burning wood, and its porous system is so developed as to possess large absorptive capacity for 

 moisture and for artificial flavorings. It is much more liable to injury by fermentation than lire-cured tobacco, and 

 is therefore not so well suited to purposes requiring textural strain nor to withstand exposure. It is especially 

 adapted to uses demanding natural and sweet flavors, with a high absorbing capacity. The difference in commercial 

 value of the product cured by the two methods is estimated as follows: Fine grades of air-cured leaf, $2 per hundred 

 pounds higher than leaf of the same variety cured by fire; medium grades, $1 per hundred pounds higher. In tin- 

 lower grades the difference is not marked. This is for products suited to domestic manufacture, and docs not apply 

 to coarse and heavy types, in which the methods of curing make little or no difference in the average commercial 

 value. In many heavy types curing by artificial heat, properly applied, makes a tobacco of stronger texture and 

 better keeping qualities, and therefore more valuable. 



In the Paducah district a large proportion of the crop is cured by log fires or in open barns by air. in Billiard 

 county one-half of the crop is cured with open wood fires, one-tenth with charcoal or with flues, and the remainder is 

 air-cured. In Graves county three-fourths of the crop is air-cured, and the balance by various applications of 

 artificial heat. In Calloway county one-fourth is air-cured, one-fourth is cured with charcoal, and one-half with 

 wood fires. In the remaining counties of this district neither charcoal fires nor flues are used, the product being 

 partly air-cured and partly cured by open wood fires. A small proportion of the crops of Ballard and McCracken 

 counties is sun-cured, a method which is said to impart peculiar sweetness to the leaf and to make it especially 

 desirable for manufacture into chewing-tobacco. 



In the Ohio River district both methods are employed. The product of Hancock county is mostly air-cured. 

 In Caldwell and Crittenden counties the two methods are about equally followed. In Lyou county about 40 per 

 cent of the crop is air-cured ; in Livingston county one-third ; and in Breckinridge county from one-third to one-half. 

 Charcoal fires and flue-curing are used to a limited extent in the last two counties. The air-curing in this district 

 is mostly confined to the product of siliceous soils, which, by reason of more porous structure, is much more easily 

 cared in this way than the oily and heavy tobacco grown on calcareous lauds. 



In the Green River district air-curing is generally adopted, the character of the product being especially suited 

 to this method of treatment. 



In the Upper Green River district air-curing is the method adopted for the lighter product; the heavy types are 

 fired. The proportion of air-cured tobacco varies in different localities from one-fourth to nine-tenths. 



In the Clarksville district the product is cured almost entirely by artificial heat. It has so much weight and 

 thickness of texture that it cannot be well cured otherwise. It enters very largely into the export trade, and must 

 be cured in such a manner as will preserve it from injury by fermentation, through which it passes in ocean 

 transportation. 



In the Cumberland River district both methods are followed. In some parts of the district charcoal is 

 extensively used, and there has been great improvement in handling and curing tobacco. Some excellent bright 

 wrappers have been produced, and there is promise of an increased amount of this type. 



TOBACCO-BARNS. 



Tobacco-houses vary in character to suit the needs of the farmer, and rail pens, roughly covered, are frequently 

 used for curing and storing the smaller crops of air-cured tobacco. A great many tobacco-houses are constructed 

 of logs, covered with clapboards. The larger planters, especially those who grow the heavier types, have one or 

 more tobacco-barns of large capacity, strongly framed, and weather boarded or planked upright, with proper 

 arrangements for ventilation. The cost of either class of houses or sheds depends upou the value of the material 

 and the kind of labor employed in their construction. The cheaper sheds are provided by an outlay of $5 or $10, 

 while the best barns may cost from $300 to $800. For air-curing the houses are purposely built smaller and of 

 more open structure than for curing by artificial heat. 



Want of sufficient house-room necessitates the crowding together of the first curing of the season to make room 

 for the later cutting. This necessity involves much risk, and the greatest vigilance is demanded to guard against 

 injury by over-hasty curing in the first instance, followed by serious damage by house-burn, as a result of 

 prematurely crowding imperfectly-cured tobacco. To escape these dangers farmers frequently make temporary 

 use of other farm buildings. 



Barns in which flues are placed are built very tight and of small size, and are either framed, closely boarded, 

 and battened, or are made of logs, nicely fitted, and well chinked and daubed. Means of ventilation must be 

 provided for these closely-built houses, so that control may be had as completely as possible of the temperature 



and of the volume of fresh air to be admitted during the several stages of (he curing process. 



663 



